What’s one billion? That’s about the number of possible permutations of the Social Security number. Which begs the question: What happens to an SSN when someone kicks the bucket?

Currently, SSN’s are never repeated when they’re issued by the Social Security Administration. As of June 2011, the SSA made the issuance entirely random (previously, for example, the first three numbers were determined by place of birth).

With nearly a billion permutations, there’s no point in any number surviving the holder’s death and being reissued. Now in theory, the combinations will eventually run out, because eventually, a billion people will have been born in the United States. But this isn’t exactly in the near future. Why worry?

Nevertheless, some people like to plan way ahead. Maybe this scenario can be mitigated with a 10-digit number. Maybe numbers will stay at nine but be recycled. But for now, your number is as unique as your DNA. But, unlike DNA, a SSN can be used fraudulently.

The three credit bureaus maintain a list of the deceased based on data from the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File Index. Sometimes it takes months for bureaus to update their databases with the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File Index.

Here’s how to avoid identity theft of the deceased:

• Report the death yourself by calling the Social Security Administration at 1-800-772-1213.
• Contact the credit bureaus directly to report a death and request the information to be recorded immediately.
• Right now, before anyone perishes, get the person a credit freeze. Upon death (as in life), the person’s Social Security number will be useless to the thief.
• Invest in identity theft protection. This is a layer of security that monitors one’s information, including Social Security number, in the wild. Have it activated for six months to a year after death.
• The Identity Theft Resource Center suggests, “Immediately notify credit card companies, banks, stockbrokers, loan/lien holders and mortgage companies of the death. The executor or surviving spouse will need to discuss all outstanding debts. If you close the account, ask them to list it as: ‘Closed. Account holder is deceased.’ If there is a surviving spouse or other joint account holder, make sure to notify the company the account needs to be listed in that surviving person’s name alone. They may require a copy of the death certificate to do this, as well as permission from the survivor.”

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to BestIDTheftCompanys.com discussing  identity theft prevention.

It’s called Chameleon—a computer virus—but maybe it should be called FrankenVirus. You wouldn’t believe what it can do: literally move through the air, as in airborne—like a biological pathogen.

And like some Franken-creation, it came from a laboratory, cultivated at the University of Liverpool’s School of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering and Electronics.

Chameleon leaps from one WiFi access point to another. And the more access points that are concentrated in a given area (think of them almost like receptor sites), the more this virus gets to hop around and spread infection.

The scientists behind this creation have discovered that the more dense a population, the more relevant is the connectivity between devices, as opposed to how easy it was for the virus to get into access points.

Access points are inherently vulnerable, and Chameleon had no problem locating weak visible access points from wherever it was at, and it also avoided detection.

“When Chameleon attacked an AP it didn’t affect how it worked, but was able to collect and report the credentials of all other WiFi users who connected to it,” explains Professor Alan Marshall in an article on Forbes.com. He added that this malware pursued other WiFi APs to connect to and infiltrate.

The scientists made this virus subsist only on the network—a realm where anti-virus and anti-malware systems typically do not scavenge for invaders. Protective software seeks out viruses on your device or online. Thus, Chameleon earns its name.

Think of this virus like the burglar who goes from house to house overnight, jiggling doorknobs to see which one is unlocked. WiFi connections are like unlocked doors, or locked doors with rudimentary locks.

Chameleon’s creators have come up with a virus that can attack WiFi networks and spread its evil fast. The researchers now want to come up with a way to tell when a network is at imminent risk.

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to TheBestCompanys.com discussing  identity theft prevention. For Roberts FREE ebook text- SECURE Your@emailaddress -to 411247. Disclosures.

When getting on a flight many business professionals connect online. It’s common these days to see a number of people on an airplane busy at their laptops—business-looking people dressed in suits, eyes pasted to spreadsheets, charts, graphs and other grinding tasks.

How many know that their company’s data can be snatched out of thin air, literally?

Here’s the thing: If you are connecting to WiFi on a plane and have all these company secrets on your device and all this client data, there is a solid chance you are risking information. Savvy business travelers may not be savvy about security—or, specifically, the lack thereof in airplane WiFi.

When logging onto an airplane WiFi, there isn’t any encryption preventing other users from seeing your data. The majority of the security in airplane WiFi is built into the payment system to protect your credit card. Beyond that, you’re pretty much left to the dogs.

The plane’s WiFi service comes in cheap (something like $12.95), but with a cost: no protection. Other people can see your or your company’s trade secrets and other private information. If the airline boasts there IS security, they mean for your credit card. Not much more.

Another thing travelers usually don’t know is that when they boot up their device, they may be tricked into selecting a particular connection (wireless network), without knowing that this network has been set in place by a hacker, they call this an “evil twin”. If you connect to it, your data is his to see.

GoGo is an in-flight WiFi service that a researcher says was using phony Google SSL certificates that interfered with passengers’ ability to get video streaming services but more alarming it was reported it also allowed data leakage. In short, GoGo made it look like this was coming from Google.

GoGo was called on this. In a report on theregister.co.uk, GoGo’s chief technology officer explains that the company’s feature did not snatch data from passengers, and that it only served the purpose of blocking streaming services. They said that GoGo simply wanted to upgrade network capacity for air travel passengers, and that they don’t support video streaming. Still, not cool.

How can airline passengers protect their data?

• When you’re not using WiFi, when it’s time to nap or read some nonsense about the Kardashians in a print magazine, go to your wireless manager and disable the WiFi connection with a right-click. Your laptop may also have a keyboard key to do this.
• If you must absolutely use public Wi-Fi for activities involving highly sensitive information, make sure that the Wi-Fi network is secure and trusted.
• Before you get onto any website, check the URL field to make sure that there is an “https” (not “http”) AND a padlock icon; these indicate the site is secure. Also check the security certificate.
• Make sure that every device that you own has full protection such as antivirus and a firewall.
• You can also use encryption. Encryption scrambles your data so that it appears to be gibberish to any hackers or snoops wanting to get ahold of it. Encryption comes in the form of a virtual private network, such as that offered by Hotspot Shield. It’s free and will scramble (encrypt) all of your online activity such as things you download, purchases, etc. This provides an impenetrable shield that guards your online actions.

When it comes to online security, don’t let your guard down just because the holiday shopping frenzy has passed. In fact, this may be the very time to put your guard up even higher.

Though it’s smart to have your radar on for the scammers during the holidays, the scammers don’t exactly go slithering back under their slimy rocks once the New Year is here. So here’s how to be safe online during, and after, the holiday season.

• Never click a link inside an e-mail. Better yet, delete, without even opening, any e-mails with subject lines promising great offers, gifts, prizes, money or other hyped-up things.
• If you don’t see the “https” before the Web address in the address bar, the site is not secure. A secure site always has “https” preceded by a padlock symbol.
• Be suspicious of “too good to be true” offers that are tweeted or messaged through social media.
• Do you shop on eBay? Then shop on eBay, not through e-mails supposedly sent by eBay. These are scams.
• Speaking of eBay, always review the feedback of the seller.
• Another thing to look for is the domain name of anything you received via e-mail. Scammers typosquat or cybersquat on legitimate domains.
• You can upgrade your protection by doing your online shopping only with reputable, well-known retailers. Though some purchases will be an exception (e.g., home-baked chocolate chip cookies), other purchases like electronics, appliances, linens and consumables should be purchased from trusted merchants.
• Shop online only when your connection is secure; Unless you use a VPN, never shop in cyberspace from a hotel’s, airport’s or café’s Wi-Fi connection. And make sure your computer’s security is always updated.
• Never use a debit card online, because if a scammer takes your money, it will be gone that instant from your checking account. With a credit card, at least you won’t have to pay the bill if the fraud is reported within 60 days.
• Never make an online purchase with your checking account—this means money being withdrawn before you receive the product…that you might never receive anyways.
• Check credit card statements every two weeks if it’s set up online, and check every paper statement.

Makes you wonder what these guys would have accomplished had they been born during the Renaissance…case in point: Kevin Mitnick, whose genius was so impressive as a cyber criminal (he hacked into IBM, Motorola, Sun Microsystems and other big-name outfits), that after serving prison time, he was hired as a good guy to help security teams develop penetration-proof systems.

But Mitnick is now onto another venture: Absolute Zero Day Exploit Exchange. Mitnick wants to sell zero-day exploits (targeted surveillance), for at least a hundred grand each. In a wired.com article, for which Mitnick was interviewed, he states: “Researchers find them, they sell them to us for X, we sell them to clients for Y and make the margin in between.” He has not revealed how much he’s sold or to whom.

But Mitnick says they aren’t necessarily government related. For example, a buyer might be a penetration tester. He says he doesn’t want to help government agencies go around spying. Why would he want to assist the very people who locked him up in prison?

It’s anyone’s guess who’d be willing to shell out $100,000 for one of these tools (which would be used to garner information about bugs in the system that have not been addressed by security patches). After all, giants like Facebook pay only tens of thousands of dollars for this kind of tool.

Mitnick isn’t the only entrepreneur in the selling of secret hacking techniques; it’s already been going on. One of the skepticisms of this venture is just whom the buyer might be. Mitnick says he’ll carefully screen his buyers.

Though what Mitnick is doing is legal, it still snags attention because of his past. This guy was once the most wanted cyber criminal in the world, having made a career of hacking from his teens to early 30s, finally getting captured in 1995.

Just as important as taking down the decorations, throwing out all the debris from opened gifts and getting the house back in order after the holiday activities, is that of scrutinizing your credit card statements.

Why? To make sure that all the purchases on there were made by you and only you. The holiday season means more credit card use = more identity theft. In this case, it’s “account takeover.”

The crook gets your credit (or debit) card information in one of several ways: digging through trash to get credit card information; tampering with ATMs; hacking; and perhaps the thief is the person you gave the card to to pay for your restaurant meal.

Yet another way the thief could get you is to obtain a new credit card line—using your name, address and Social Security number. He maxes out his new card and doesn’t pay the bill. One day you get a call from a collection agency, along with knowledge that your credit has been ruined. This is called “new account fraud”

Account takeover can be discovered via unauthorized charges on your statements, or the thief’s spending habits may alert the company (via its anomaly detection software) to something suspicious, such as a lot of spending halfway across the globe one hour after you purchased something in your home town.

You have 60 days to report suspicious activity to save yourself from paying the unpaid bills. The zero liability policy protects you. The most you’ll pay out is $50. But if you delay reporting the fraudulent activity, you’re screwed.

Thus, you must make time to just sit down and look over every charge on your statements, even if this means that the only time you have to do it is when you’re on the toilet. But you DO have time. You have time to read someone’s drivel on Facebook or something about Duchess Kate’s hair…you certainly have time to read your card statements every month.

Ho ho ho! It seems that this year, Santa’s sleigh was filled with technology—laptops, smartphones, gaming consoles, etc. Playing with and learning about your new tech toy is fun, but remember to secure your device. It would be a total bummer if your new toy was suddenly compromised by a virus or hacked into. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to protect your new device.

Computer/laptop

Install security software. Free software is not recommended, as it provides only basic protection and you’ll likely end up purchasing more anyways. Your security software should include:

• A two-way firewall: monitors the activity on your devices making sure nothing bad is coming in (like unauthorized access) and nothing good is leaving (like your data).
• Anti-virus software: protects your devices from malicious keyloggers and other malware.
• Anti-phishing software: watches your browser and email for suspicious inbox activity.
• Anti-spyware software: keep your PC spyware free.
• Safe search capacities: McAfee® SiteAdvisor® tells you what websites are good and which are suspicious.

Smartphone or tablet

• Be leery of third-party apps.
• Turn off automatic connections to Bluetooth and Wi-fi.
• Apply app and OS updates.
• Never store sensitive information on your device.
• Use mobile security software for iOS or Android that includes anti-virus, anti-theft, app, and web protection.

Gaming or electronic device

• Create backups.
• Don’t store personal info on the device.
• Connect only to a secure Wi-Fi network.
• Make sure you apply any OS updates.

Now have a great time with your new tech device. Play with ease of mind, knowing your device is secure.

Robert Siciliano is an Online Security Expert to McAfee.